Hyderabad, August 07: Seven passengers of an RTC bus, the bus of an educational institution and a car were stranded in the waters of Gaddamvagu near the Bhainsa bypass road in Adilabad district today as heavy rain lashed the district and other parts of the state, causing extensive damage to standing crops and disrupting road connectivity.
According to officials, six gates of the Gaddamvagu barrage were lifted this evening following heavy inflows due to incessant rains. An RTC bus from Dharmabad to Bhainsa passing through the Bhainsa bypass road got struck in the stream. An educational institution’s bus and a car were also stranded but the passengers got out and swam to safety.
As the bus got stranded, officials closed down the barrage gates and waited for the water to recede to rescue the stranded passengers. The vehicles got stranded on a slightly higher altitude and there was no immediate danger of their being washed away, officials said.
Though fire services personnel and district officials reached the place rescue operations could not be taken up as the vehicles were engulfed in the stream.
The administration declared a holiday for all schools in the district tomorrow.
Elesewhere in the state, to a lesser extent, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts were also affected. The five fishermen who set out on fishing into the Bay of Bengal from Srikakulam coast are yet to be traced.
There might be some relief in the next 48 hours since the well-marked low pressure has moved to the mainland of Chhattisgarh.
Several parts of Adilabad district have been receiving heavy rain since last night, damaging crops and killing cattle.
Road connectivity was badly affected as several bridges and roads were damaged at many places. Flood water entered houses in several low- lying areas of the district as tanks and checkdams breached. RTC buses were stranded on the outskirts of Wankidi village due to menacing level of water on the roads.
People of four villages surrounding Buggaguda project in Kazipet mandal are living in fear as the water level crossed the danger level. Crops in about 1,500 acres near Pedavagu project and Komaram Bheem project in Kerameri mandal are under water.
Ten villages in Vemanapally mandal were cut off from outside world as movement of road traffic was disrupted. At Kadem project two crest gates were opened and 20,000 cusecs of water was released into the Godavari. Two gates of Satnala project in Jainath mandal were lifted and 20,000 cusecs of water let out.
Five gates of Mattadiwagu project in Tamsi mandal were lifted and 21,000 cusecs of water was released.
SCCL stoped coal production in Srirampur and Darlykairiguda areas.
The district reported overall rainfall of 46.1 mm. In Warangal district flood warning was issued at Ramannagudem in Eturunagaram mandal with steady increase in water level of the Godavari.
In Karimngar district, Rayapatnam bridge connecting Adilabad and Karimnagar is facing the threat of submergence with discharge rate being 1.3 lakh cusecs at Kadem reservoir.
The flood level of Godavari river at Bhadrachalam in Khammam district was 25.1 ft. The control rooms at the collector’s office in Khammam, sub-collector’s office in Bhadrachalam and all tahsildar’s offices in the Bhadrachalam division are functioning and revenue officials closely monitoring the situation.
Due to heavy rains in Srikakulam district on Wednesday, a 3-ft breach occurred to the right of the existing siphon, and the flood water lashed and flowed over the abutting tank and inundated paddy fields at three villages _ Ayyavaripeta, Palavalasa and Kondapeta _ in Burja mandal.
Two colonies in Parvatipuram town in Vizianagaram district were inundated, and 340 boarders of two hostels were shifted to a nearby school building. The residents of ‘One Thousand Bypass’ colony were shifted to the Saibaba Degree College.
Banthuvalasa village was submerged by 4 ft of water and all the villagers and animals were shifted to a relief camp set up at Gopalapuram village. Hostellers, numbering 112, were provided shelter at the ZP high school, Sitanagaram. The well-marked low pressure area in the northwest Bay of Bengal and the adjoining coastal Odisha now lies over north Odisha and its neighbourhood, and is likely to move in the west-northwest direction.
Meanwhile, the upper-air cyclonic circulation over west Rajasthan, extending up to the mid-tropospheric levels, is persisting.
Chief minister K Rosaiah, who held a review meeting wtih officials, asked the disaster management commissioner to advise collectors to be on high alert in view of forecast of heavy rains. He asked them to make arrangements for shifting people from low-lying areas, which are likely to be inundated, to safer places.
The state has, since the onset of monsoon, received a rainfall of 409.9 mm as against a normal rainfall of 326.8 mm with a deviation of 25 per cent excess.
The coastal Andhra region recorded 438.4 mm as against a normal rainfall of 303.1 mm, with a deviation of 45 per cent excess, Rayalaseema 268.2 mm against 188.9 mm with 42 per cent excess and Telangana 455.0 mm against 403.4 mm, 13 per cent excess.
–Agencies